Meet Sonya

This is Sonya. She is 7 years old. She loves music and loves to dance. And did I mention that she is cuter than cute?!

Sonya lives in a foster home where she is doing very well. Her foster mom said that she loves being told, "You are the best!"

Sonya has Down Syndrome. She is outgoing and friendly. She warmed up to us very quickly both times we met her. In April she and Tanna spent a lot of time playing with a jump rope. She was so determined to jump that rope! It was absolutely precious!

Sonya speaks in simple, but clear Mandarin. She follows instructions and she is great at coloring. She loved the stickers we had with us and had so much fun sticking them on her face and clothes.

Could this darling little girl be your daughter? She is just waiting for a family! Please contact April Uduhiri at april.uduhiri@gladney.org for more information about adopting Sonya!

And please share her post! Her family may be one of your friends or acquaintances!

This is Shawn {Under Consideration}

Shawn is a precious little boy who will turn 2 in just a few weeks. We first met him when he was 8 months old and have seen him 3 times. It is so sweet to watch him grow and then to get to introduce him to you and to advocate for a family for him!

Waving "bye-bye"

Shawn lives with a foster family. His foster mom brought him in the last 2 times we met him. She likes to show us everything he can do! He is a little shy at first, but he warms up and get pretty smiley pretty quickly.

There was this little toy car in the room when we met him last month. He loved that car! We pushed him back and forth and heard his little giggle over and over!

He likes to eat grapes and tomatoes but does not like spicy food. His favorite toys are puzzles and he "likes to go up and down stairs."

Little Shawn has developmental delays, but is doing really well. He can stand alone and walk with very little assistance. This little boy is sooo close to walking! He responds to his name and vocalizes though he is not yet saying words.

Shawn is a super cute, cuddly little guy who needs a family! Could he be your son? Contact April Uduhiri at april.uduhiri@gladney.org for more information about him!

And please share this post! You never know when his family will be found on your list of friends!

David and Daniel- Matched!! {Taiwan}

David and Daniel are two very special brothers who have held a place in our hearts for a couple of years now. These sweet brothers were waiting in Taiwan for a forever family, and we’ve been advocating for them over the last year and a half. This past week we have learned that these sweet brothers are waiting no longer – they have a family! We are overcome with joy for them!

When reading the information about these two cuties (and we get a lot of information about the waiting children in Taiwan!), the thing that comes to mind is “Why don’t these amazing, smart, curious, funny, adventurous boys have a family yet?!” Then reality sets in – they are boys, and they are older, and there are two of them. Unfortunately, these are the children it’s hardest to find a family for. But when they do find a family – it’s time to celebrate big! And we are celebrating for them!!

There are a lot of waiting children like David and Daniel in Taiwan – smart, creative, fun, amazing kids who are waiting for forever families. Some are boys, some are school-aged, some are groups of siblings – but they all need families. If you’d like to learn more about waiting children in Taiwan, please contact Taiwan Program Caseworker, Mary Chapman, at mary.chapman@gladney.org. 

Sparkling Savannah {Under Consideration}

Oh I love getting to introduce new children to you! Especially children that I have known for a long time!

Savannah is a little girl with a huge, sparkling personality! She is just full of life and has such a beautiful smile! The words we wrote to describe her were things like "outgoing, spunky, super friendly, curious, independent".

Savannah is 7 years old and has dwarfism. She knows her numbers and letters and can write her name. She dresses herself and feeds herself. She was so cute and did an amazing job copying English words! She did really great at coloring in the lines and copying patterns. She drew the cutest little stick figure when Keely asked her to.

Savannah is another child that we have met multiple times. We especially requested that the orphanage prepare her file since they were not planning to thinking that children with dwarfism are too difficult to find families for. Let's prove to them that this little girl is very worthy of a family! She is truly perfect in every way!

Could Savannah be your daughter? Contact April Uduhiri at april.uduhiri@gladney.org for more information.

Sweet Samson {Under Consideration}

We have known this precious little man since he was 5 months old! He stole our hearts then and he still owns them. This little boy is just... well, let me start at the beginning.

Samson was born with CHD. When we first met him he was tiny and very, very fragile. He needed heart surgery and we were really concerned about him. I think handing this tiny, frail, blue baby boy back to the nanny and walking out of that orphanage ranks among the hardest things I've ever done in my life. 

By the next time we saw him he was 17 months old. He had been to Shanghai and received his first surgery! He was still pretty tiny, but this time it was tears of joy rolling down my face as I left. This tiny, precious boy was going to live!

We saw him again in April, a silly, smart, active two year old. This time he came in with his doting foster mom and my heart was so full watching him play and do all of the things two year olds love to do. I handed him a mirror and he immediately put it to his ear like a phone! 

He came in with the same foster mom when we saw him 2 weeks ago. He is now 2 1/2.  It took him a bit to warm up to all the strangers in the room, but once he did he charmed us all over again! He had these silly little broken glasses that he kept trying to put on. He would wrinkle up his little nose to try to keep them on. It was adorable!

Samson is doing great developmentally. He walks and runs and jumps. He gets along well with the other kids in his foster home. He is toilet trained. He speaks simple words in Mandarin.

This little boy is so special and he needs a special family! Please contact April Uduhiri at april.uduhiri@gladney.org if you want more information about Samson!

And please, share Samson's story! Let's find his family! 

Monday Morning Matches!

Why not begin the week with some spectacular news!?

We have matches, matches, matches!!

First of all lovely little Arielle!

Then handsome Kurt!

Then beautiful Kira!

Isn't that about the best news you could wake up to on a Monday morning?

Congratulations to our precious Superkids and their excited families!

A Few Statistics

View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint

We are home! Here are a few statistics about our trip. Excluding our international flights we traveled 2, 188 miles.

We traveled by:

Planes: 4 hours

Trains: 12 hours

Bus: 19 hours

We saw a total of 198 children.

We visited 12 orphanages.

We stayed in 10 hotels.

We took thousands of pictures and hundreds of videos.

And memories? More priceless memories were made than you can count!